New Endings
by Jennevieve
Summary: Hey! Wouldn't it be neat to be able to travel into our favourite books? Whoops, it worked! Now what?"
1. Elevator Music

This is written by both me (Jenevieve) and Elski.

Disclaimer: We own ourselves (Ellen and Jen), and the idea of travel and ambient animal magic, but almost all other magics, places and people featured are property of Tamora Pierce.

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Chapter One – Elevator Music

It was late at night, and they'd had a lot of sugar. Consequently, both Ellen and Jen were rather giddy. Most of their conversation consisted of half finished sentences and giggling. As always, their conversation turned to books.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you, I got Shatterglass!" Ellen gleefully interrupted something Jen was saying. "You read that already, right?"

"Yeah, I read it during various visits to Chapters. I never buy hardcover – it's too expensive," Jen said, used to Ellen's habit of interrupting at completely random times to say something equally random and totally off topic.

"Eh, yeah, it finally came out softcover over march break and I needed a book for the car-ride home; sixteen hours is a lot of time to kill. What did you think of the ending?"

"Um, I can't quite remember…" Jen replied, slightly embarrassed.

"It was those murder thingies, with that Ghost guy," Ellen said, specific and detailed as always.

"Oh yeah! I remember now! It was rather abrupt."

"Exactly! All the book they were searching for him and trying everything and 'oh how on earth shall we ever find him' and then in less then a page, whoops, that's all, folks! We've got him, go home, nothing to see here."

"We could have done a much better job writing it…" Jen said thoughtfully.

Ellen laughed. "Usually it's me who says that."

"Yeah, well." Jen said, with a dismissive flap of her hand.

"You do have a point, mind, even if it's me who usually makes it. The ending would have been much better if we'd done it."

"Even if we had just been characters in it, we could have done way better!" Jen exclaimed suddenly.

"But then wouldn't the ending have been even quicker and less satisfying?" Ellen wondered aloud. "How do you define 'doing better'? Wouldn't that be solving it faster?"

"That's not the point. I thought what we were talking about was our superiority!" Jen said in mock indignation, then giggling. The sugar was catching up to her.

"Quite possibly." Ellen giggled too, something she never did expect in Jen's presence, and rarely unless it was late or she was full of sugar. Or both.

"It would be neat if we were characters in books, though." Jen said.

"Well, you just about summed up the basic idea of every other daydream I ever have." Ellen said, giggling again. "It _would_ be neat. What if we were, dunno, the two hitherto unknown other magic-type kids who go to stay at… what's the cottage thing called again?"

"Discipline."

"Right. Depressing name, really. Anyhow, what if Niko found us, too? We could have… book magic!"

"That would be great! But, what _is_ book magic? What could you do with it? Speed read? I can do that already!"

"See? You've already got it, then!" Ellen joked. "Seriously, though, you could… well… when you write things… uh… I'll get back to you on that one?"

"Oh! What if, when you write things they happened!" Jen exclaimed.

"Oh, that would be cool! We'd be like, Scarlet Witch, except on paper!" Ellen said.

"Uh, who?" Jen asked, puzzled.

"Oh, she's a mutant who c-"

"No! No x-men. You're too obsessed. It's not even as if they're books. It's a _movie_." Jen interrupted.

"And originally a comic and also a tv show, but I get the point. One could argue that you're obsessed about _not_ liking x-men, but that would be impolite, so I shan't." Ellen said, her tone self-righteous. "Still, it would be cool. Hey, y'know what would be even _cooler_? If we could go into the books!"

"Let's try!" Jen stood up, heading for the stairs to her room.

"Are you serious?" Ellen called after her, scrambling to disentangle herself from her sleeping bag. "Try to get into a book?"

"Yeah! Why not?" 

"Er… Well, I can't think of any reasons. Lets go!" Ellen paused, the added in a talking-to-herself type tone, "Or rather, I'll go. You seem to be gone, without so much as waiting for me. Some friend you are." 

"I heard that!" Jen told Ellen over her shoulder. "And we should tiptoe. Don't want to wake Mom up. She'd be rather grumpy."

"I should think. After all, it's…" Ellen paused to check a clock. "Geeze, 1:03 in the morning! No wonder we're actually going to do this. Our brains have gone to sleep, leaving that bit of us that usually never makes it past daydreams behind to try and operate out bodies."

"That didn't make much sense."

"About as much sense as trying to get into a book, perhaps?"

* **

After some interesting events in which the two girls nearly woke Alison, Jen's sister, while retrieving the necessary books, the two were headed back downstairs.

"Sandry's Book," Ellen read aloud from the cover, though it wasn't as if they didn't both know the title already. "Lots of fun stuff here, I do believe. Discovering you have magic, small matters like water-spouts almost killing you all, and, of course, the literally earth-shaking grand finale. Can you remained me again why we'd even _ want_ to try to go there?"

"Gladly. Let's see… Magic, magic, and… what was my third point? Ah yes, magic!" Jen listed. "Besides, it probably won't work to go there anyways…" 

"Sorry, _probably_?" Ellen asked, raising an eyebrow (something that she did at all opportunities).

"Yes, probably. You never know."

"Right. If you say so, mate. So, are we just going to, dunno, open the book to the first page and say 'We wish we were there?' Or are we going to operate more along the candle-lighting and animal sacrifice ritualistic type lines?"

Jen plunked herself down on her sleeping bag. "I'd say we open it to a random place, close our eyes, and say 'we wish we were there' three times while tracing circles in the air with our fingers. Or maybe, forget the circles."

"Well, nice to see you've got this all thought out." Sitting down beside Jen, Ellen reached out and snagged the book. Flipping through, she added, "Not just a random place, though. A meticulously selected place, after hours of careful research. Or, we could compromise and just at least read the page we're heading off to. Metaphorically speaking, since this isn't going to work. You know how dumb we're going to feel?"

"Yup. I know!" Jen said cheerfully. Far too cheerfully, Ellen felt, for being so late at night. Jen continued, "How about before they find out about their magic? Maybe a few days after they first arrive at Discipline?"

"Sounds good to me." Ellen flipped through the book for a few moments, then held it up. "How about here? The first time they're all together in Discipline, with Niko and Lark and Rosethorn."

"Yep. Looks good." Jen grabbed one edge of the book. "Let's go!"

"Oookay…" With a sidelong glance at Jen to reassure herself that her friend was joining in, Ellen began chanting slowly, "We wish we were there."

Jen joined in halfway through the second time chanting the words, and together they said it the third time.

Ellen started to turn her head towards Jen, opening her mouth to say something (probably I told you so), when the world seemed to slow down. She felt like she way moving through molasses; in the background, inexplicably, elevator music began to play. Her sight began to dim, and before she could get so much as one syllable out, everything went a funny shade of green.


	2. On the Roof

Hexe: Thank's for the warning about apostrophe's, we fixed the'm. (Joking. ^_^ Although we do think we fixed them.)

Tanydwr: Yup, they're going to remember what's going to happen next; most of the plot revolves around it! But as for their magic, you'll have to wait and see.

writergirl122711: Thanks, we're glad someone besides just us finds it amusing!

Note: This chapter and likely the next one will be confusing, we have no doubt. (You'll see why in the last few lines of this chapter.) Just stick with it, please, we swear it'll all make sense soon!

Chapter Two – On the Roof

When Jen opened her eyes next, she was staring at deep blue skies with a few fluffy white clouds drifting past. Well, this is nice, was her first dazed thought. Her second was, why can I see the sky? Her third was, oh my word! We blew off the roof of my house! Her fourth was, why do I feel like I'm lying on straw? A quick look around revealed that it was because, in fact, she was. A straw roof, to be specific.

"Ellen?" she asked, slowly sitting up.

A metre or so away, Ellen rose with a slow moan. "Nrgh," was her helpful contribution. A second later, she added, "Elevator music? _Elevator music_? What, no dramatic puff of smoke or flash of lightning or even a swirling vortex of terror? Just a sickly green colour, and _elevator music_?" After a long moment of silence, she added, "You know, I ought to be frightened out of my wits, but I think I've passed right through the fear threshold into the sort of calmness on the other side. Like the eye of a hurricane, right? Where the hell are we?"

Jen glanced around. "By the looks of it, we're on a straw roof. And it's the middle of the day, too, when it was night back home. And it's a place where it's summer, not winter like it ought to be."

"Okay. Okay. Um. Okay. Lesse." Ellen covered her eyes. "This is all a dream. This is all a dream. This is all a dream." She opened one eye to peer through her fingers. "Damn."

"Um… If this isn't a dream, where are we? Did we actually manage to travel through the book, d'you think?"

"Damned if I know." With increasing stress, Ellen was starting to curse more and more. In conversational tones, she added, "I think I may scream." 

"Well," Jen said reasonably, "perhaps the best way of finding out where we are would be to get off this roof? We could go to the edge and see how far down it is…" 

With a shrug, Ellen wormed her way over the edge on her belly, and cautiously looked over the edge. A red-haired girl, head poked out her window, was looking straight back up at her.

As she said she would, Ellen screamed.

Jen jumped up. "What! What is it? Is it some kind of monster?"

"Worse," Ellen moaned. "It's Tris."

Trisana Chandler glared back up at the strangers on the roof. "That's fair rude," she commented voice indignant. "Didn't your Ma teach you any manners?" She paused. "And how do you know my name?"

Ellen paused for a moment, trying to make sense of Tris's odd accent (an Imperial accent, she supposed), then sighed. "You're Trisana Chandler. You're one of the most powerful weather mages of this time. You-"

"_What!?_" Tris burst out. "_Mage?_ You're as crazy as the thief-boy!"

"Oops. Erm, yes, you're right, of course. I didn't say that, really I didn't," Ellen said hurriedly, the words slightly jumbled in her hurry. They don't know yet! she thought at her self. Aieieieieie!

Jen went over to the edge as well, interrupting Ellen's panicked thoughts. Peering down at Tris, she said in a small voice, "Hi?"

Tris turned her glare at Jen. "Another one of you! Lark, Niko, Ro-" Tris hesitated, then decided against calling on the fierce-tempered Rosethorn. "Lark, Niko! There's people on the roof!" She pulled her head back in, and the two heard her footsteps retreating into the house.

Ellen glanced at her friend, suddenly feeling… deflated, as it were. "So…"

"This," Jen said, voice slow and vaguely mournful, "doesn't seem to be working as planned." 

***

As Tris burst in, looking hot and bothered, Lark glanced up from her seat at the table where she was cutting bread for the mid-day meal. She opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Tris beat her to it.

"Lark! There's people on the roof, two girl in the weirdest clothing, and they speak with a horrible accent. I think they're cracked, really. They said I had magic." Tris drew in a deep gasp of air, then let it out slowly, calming herself. A moment later, she added in a quieter tone, "If I had magic, my family'd have kept me."

Lark managed to contain herself to expressing her surprise no further than raising her eyebrows. Absentmindedly, she brushed crumbs off the table. Standing at last, she spoke. "Tris, be a dear and fetch Niko? He'll want to be here, I'm sure. He's probably outside." Not waiting for a response from Tris, Lark strode briskly towards the stairs.

Tris stared after Lark's swiftly disappearing form. She shrugged, slightly annoyed, then headed out the door. Glancing around the yard, she found Niko quickly. "Niko!" she called. "Lark wants you! There's crazy people on the roof."

Niko stifled a laugh. "Crazy people on the roof? This I must see." 

***

Five or so minutes later, Ellen and Jen were seated within Discipline. Daja, Tris, Briar and Sandry had all been more than a little curious about the pair, but the older mages had banished the four to their rooms. 

"How did you get onto the roof?" Lark asked at last. 

Ellen and Jen glanced at each other. For a moment both were silent, then finally Ellen answered, "In all truth? We have no idea."

"And know about magic? I suppose you've no idea how you knew about that either, yes?" Rosethorn asked, rather more briskly than Lark.

"Er, no, I know how we know that," Ellen said slowly, wondering how much to tell them. "Um. Well, you see, where we come from… you guys are a book. Y'know, a story for kids?"

"Kids?" Niko frowned. Lark, who had been present for an earlier impromptu street-slang lesson from Briar, translated. 

"Childrn, Niko. Brair says that too."

"Right," Ellen confirmed. "And so, well, we read about Tris. And about Daja and Briar and Sandry, and about you guys, and about the things you're going to do."

Niko looked at Ellen, a strange expression on his face. Ellen thought it was because he had trouble believing what she was saying. In truth, it was because as Ellen got more tired and more anxious, her words began to slur together, and come faster.

Correctly interrupting Niko's look, Jen put in wearily, "She says we read about you, and we know what's coming next. In your lives, she means."

"Oh," said Niko. After a moment, he enquired, "And where exactly is it the two of you come from?"

Jen glanced at Ellen, but her friend had fallen strangely silent. With a shrug, she turned away from Ellen and replied, "Uh, um…. Let's see. How to explain? I think perhaps the best way of putting this would be to say we come from an alternate universe…"

An odd look had taken up residence on Ellen's face, and she was staring blankly into thin air. "Er," she said at last, absently. "Er. Is a common side effect of traveling through dimensions to be able to hear the birds outside talking? Like… talking-talking? Like people?"

"No, that's justour magic," came a calm voice from the door. It had a similar accent to that of Jen and Ellen's, but with a touch of Imperial to it, as if the speaker had been born Canadian but spent some time around Summersea. The voice also sounded a whole lot like Ellen's.

Slowly, everyone turned to face the door. 

Ellen was standing there, looking at Ellen. Jen was behind her, waving cheerily at Jen.

"I'm confused," said the original Jen at last.

"Join the guild," remarked Niko, bemusedly.


	3. Homegoing

Bored to Death: Aww, we got our first flamer! patpat Go play in traffic like a good boy, now. Ahm... Anyhow... I'm going to pretend that by this: "_way too much background blather and only the MOST FREAKIN' CLICHED IDEA EVER PUBLISHED! gimme a break... when you have some content, then post. until do the rest of us a favor and don't use up space with stuff like this_" you meant "_I think you talk a bit too much about background info; in my opinion, a faster-moving plot is better. Also, the idea's a bit cliched. I don't really like this_." In response to that, we'd like to apologize for not getting to the plot quicker. The background is important too, though! And although I have seen this idea used in a tacky manner once or twice before, we plan to write so dynamically you won't so much as remember the others. And while we're sorry you don't like the story, we can't please everyone.

Shadowdancer: We're glad you like it! We'll try to update more, but with exams and all we've been having trouble...

The Kumquat Warrior: We love Circle of Magic too, obviously! Not enough fanfiction gets written about it.

writergirl122711: Well, we did warn you! Hang in there, with luck this chapter will clear most of the confusion up.

Tanydwr: Yes, one of them has animal magic (the Circle equivalent of wild magic), but as for the other... you'll have to wait and see! There's a hint in the chapter: "...Jen burned herself no less than three times on various hot foods..." We do know of another really good circle fic, if you want to check it out: "Kezia", by Steelsings. It's awesome, although it's not done.

Chapter Three: Homegoing

Much Later (except, in a way, not.):

_"We wish we were home again!"_

As the last strains of the tacky elevator music died away, Ellen and Jen gave simultaneous groans and slowly sat up. Ellen was massaging her head.

"There has got," she murmured, "to be a way to do that without getting a splitting headache in the bargain."

"Gah," Jen agreed, rubbing her temples. For a few moments neither of them spoke, then at last Jen said, "I thought I'd be happy to be back." The unsaid, 'but I'm not' hung heavily in the air.

"Yeah," said Ellen after a while. "It's so quiet, now, without the voices in the background. I thought I'd learned to ignore them, but now that they're gone… the phrase 'a deafening silence' is taking on a whole new meaning."

"Yeah," said Jen, somewhat listlessly. "And I feel so…"

"Empty?" Ellen suggested, and Jen nodded. "Almost like a piece of me is missing," she added.

For a while the two girls sat in silence, brooding, then Jen suddenly perked up. "Hey, I know what'll cheer us up!" she exclaimed, then winced and, with a glance towards the upper floor where her family was sleeping, repeated in a softer voice, "I know what will cheer us up. Lets get the books and see if they've changed at all! Like, if we're in them."

Ellen seemed to go from seated to upright without passing through a single stage in between. "Lets go!" she exclaimed in the loudest whisper she could muster. "Come on, come on, _come on_!" she urged, practically dancing on the spot. "And… can we turn on the TV? If I don't get some background noise, I'm gonna crack."

In the frantic rush upstairs, Ellen had snatched two of the three books that remained upstairs, Jen had grabbed one. They were now sitting mutely on the floor, all four books spread out in front of them, staring at the titles and cover art in shock.

The first book remained more-or-less the same, the shot of the roof with Sandry and Briar on top, except now all six young mages were laughing and chattering away atop Discipline. The title, however, now read 'Magic Times'.

It was by the second book things got bad. The cover showed Niko, Tris, Daja, Frostpine, Sandry, Briar and Rosethorn spiraling away into a black abyss. A glowing strand of magic connected Tris, Daja and Sandry to Briar; he had anchored himself to what looked like his _shakkan_ with another glowing vine of pure power. At Briar's feet, Lark lay unconscious, bleeding from a head wound. The title now read 'Beginning of the End'.

The third book was titled 'Tales of a Wanderer'. The cover shoved Briar, lines of exhaustion etched on his face and clad in rags, hiking down a long road with no seeming end. His _shakkan_ was tucked under his arm. With his free hand, he held Lark's hand. The woman was smiling happily at nothing, and she was bobbing along behind Briar like a young child behind a parent.

The fourth book showed a frightful scene. It was a city square with a fountain in the center. A dog was sniffing at a horribly familiar pair of corpses. A shriveled, withered _shakkan_ had spilled from its cracked pot and was toppled beside them. The title read, 'The Circle Ends'.

Ellen took a deep, ragged breath that hinted of suppressed tears. "We… we did all this, didn't we. We killed them…" Quietly, she reach for 'Beginning of the End', and flipped through the pages, skimming the words. Here and there, a phrase jumped out and caught her eye…

…_Sandry stared at Aymery's corpse, the smoking black burn on his chest indicating where the lighting bolt had entered him. But how… I don't have lighting magic… her thought whirled, and she dropped to her knees as Tris let out a heart-wrenching scream… _

_…shaking with grief, Tris fingered her cousin's earring. Something caught the corner of her eye. A boat? Without thinking, she whirled around and attacked, hurling raw magic at the now fully visible raiders ship…_

_…exploded overhead, Briar saw Tris go rigid abruptly, then collapse to the ground. He felt himself slipping, being pulled somewhere unknown, and without thinking he threw an anchoring vine of magic to the _shakkan_…_

_..of them dead, and he with one foot in the land of the dead alongside them. Turning, Briar let out a wail of…_

_…simple now, having never recovered from the blow to the head. He himself, Briar knew, would only last as long as the _shakkan_ could provide power for their vine. When it ran out, it died, he would tumble after his friends, pulled to the land of the dead by their magical connection, leaving the child-like Lark to fend…_

…_nowhere to go, now the pirates controlled Winding Circle. Nowhere to go… suddenly, Briar recalled something Niko had mentioned once. Another place, like Winding Circle, a place for mages to learn. Lightsbridge. Maybe they could help, could fight away the pirates. "Come on, Lark," he called the…_

Silently, Ellen set the book down. Glancing up, she saw Jen setting down 'Tales of a Wander'. Obviously she'd gleaned enough information from it to know what had happened in 'Beginning of the End', because she quietly said,

"Lightsbridge won't help. He goes to all kinds of places, but everywhere he goes they're afraid to fight people who got some of the most powerful mages around with such ease." There was a small, barely controlled tremor in Jen's voice.

Their eyes met, and without a word they both turned and dove for the final book. Jen flipped to the last few pages and, huddled together, they began reading. A moment later Ellen turned away, looking somewhat nauseated. Jen continued reading, unable to set it down. Finishing the last line, she set the book down with the solemn reverence one usually reserved for lowering a casket into a grave. Which, in a way, she was.

"We have to go back," Ellen said abruptly, reaching for the newly re-named 'Magic Times'. "We've got to go back and tell them Sandry will zap Av-what's-his-face so that she won't, or even just tell them about the pirates ahead of time or _something_, and personal philosophy about meddling with time be hanged!"

"Wait a sec." Jen intervened, reaching out to block Ellen's hand. "We have to go, yes, but not yet."

"And why," Ellen demanded, "not?"

"Two words: indoor plumbing. Do what you want, but I'm having a hot shower before we go back."

Ellen considered this for a moment, weighing her feeling of urgency against the wonders of Canadian civilization. Civilization won.

Having located 'modern' clothing and changed, the two showed up for breakfast slightly less the bright eyed and bushy tailed. "It's like jet-lag, without the jet," Ellen groaned under her breath.

"Seizure in a bottle, without the bottle," Jen quipped wearily, quoting one of their old inside jokes.

Ellen groaned again, and began gently beating her head on the table, just as Jen's mother walked in the room. She blinked, and wisely didn't ask.

"Morning, Mom," Jen said. Her mother paused.

"There's something funny about your voice, Jen," she commented.

Jen and Ellen exchanged looks, then Ellen flippantly proclaimed, "Oh, that's just our Imperial accent."

Her mother gave the laugh of someone who understands that what has been said is supposed to be funny, but doesn't see the humour. Glancing at the girls, and taking in their 'look what the cat dragged in' appearance, she added, "How late did you girls stay up?"

They exchanged looks again. This time, Jen spoke. "Oh, about a year." (Authors' Note: That's about how long Sandry's book took, right?)

Jen's mother laughed. "Right," she said. The rest of Jen's family arrived, and breakfast began.

Jen burned herself no less than three times on various hot foods, while Ellen chattered nonstop (literally) because 'everything seems so quiet'.

After an hour long shower apiece (marveling all the while at the miracle that was Jen's family's hot-water tank), the two sat crossed legged in the relative privacy of Jen's room. They were re-clad in the Circle clothing that had been washed in the sink and laboriously dried with Jen's ancient hair-dryer, although after twenty minutes ineffectual work, Ellen used a different word than 'ancient'.

They locked eyes, then reaching for the book together...

_"We wish we were there again!"_


End file.
